Kingfisher

20/03/17

The iridescent kingfisher is Britain's most jewel-like bird and one that is highly sought by photographers. Kingfishers are shy and dive so fast there is no chance of following them with a camera. I captured this image of a surfacing female from a hide on a tidal riverbank. A reflection pool was set up in front of the hide with a small tank in the centre into which I placed the fish. This guaranteed the location at which the kingfisher would dive and emerge, hopefully with its catch, enabling me to fix the position of the camera and pre-focus. I was shooting 6 frames per second at a shutter speed of 1/3,200th second to freeze the action. Pressing the remote release shutter as soon as the bird left its perch, its whole dive was over and it was back on its perch in less than the two seconds it took to fill the canera buffer with images. Please visit my Kingfisher Gallery.